Why Oracle Isn't Part of the OSDL

darthcamaro writes "Some may wonder why OSDL, the self-proclaimed center of gravity for the Linux Universe and employer of Linus Torvalds, does not include Oracle as a member. Well, in a recent interview Wim Coekaerts, Director of Linux Engineering at Oracle has spelled it out in no uncertain terms. From the article: 'The thing that was really kind of revolting is that OSDL goes out and basically says that they represent the Linux community while there is no direct feedback line back to the community.'"

Comments

Re:Oracle isn't free, and mysql is

[Etyenne]

The way things are going in three to five years nobody will be able to charge for a database. Look how fast mysql and postgres are gaining features.

Well, many organisation have a lot of ressources invested in Oracle and have large application built around Oracle-specific features. Oracle also have a lot of mindshare among DBA. They are not going to switch overnight. They will continue to pay Oracle for support and upgrade for along time to come, because it's cheaper and safer to do so.

I predict a very slow but steady decline for the big database vendors. It might take a decade or two before OSS database got a significant portion of the enterprise market. In the meantime, Oracle and cie will try to diversify into related markets : ERP, dev tools, etc.

Ho wait, that's already happening ! Too bad these segments are also being commoditized ...